Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Coyote Gulch GSENM

It's been a while, do to the wonderful adventure of being a new father, among all the other chaos of my personal life.  I may share more of my adventures in fatherhood later.

I just returned from a four day trip to Coyote Gulch in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  It was a quite the adventure, crossing the many different micro climates of the trail.  We went from slick rock, to sand dunes, to small willow and cottonwood forests on the canyon floor.  I was with a group of five backpackers, led by Garth Tino, a faculty member at Utah Valley University.

I had a great time, but made some mistakes.  Everyone forgets something on a trip, and I forgot two things.  One was an inconvenience  my camp shoes, but the other was a huge embarrassment, my hand sanitizer.  I felt so awkward every time I had to ask someone for theirs.  Lesson learned.  Time to make a poop bag.  (It's not what it sounds like)

We found a spring, flowing water right from the rock, and the water was pretty tasty.  I feel that my choice of grub was good, and remember, you can eat good in the back country and not need a full stove or fridge.  We had a great view of the stars, and if the moon wasn't full, I might have slept under the stars.

One thing that we discussed as a class was the difference between personal and professional responsibility.  By yourself or a group of friends, there are some risks that you might be willing to take, that if you professionally were to do would be quite foolish or reckless.  You might even stray into the legal area of endangerment.

Some parts of the trail can be difficult to find and follow, so if you desire to follow in my footsteps, do your research, and get the right maps.  Due to the many interconnected waterways, side and slot canyons, it can be easy to get lost.  Talk to people who have been there, and better yet, talk to the BLM rangers who oversee the NM to really know before you go.

For the full picture experience of the trip, and some videos, go to Coyote Gulch Pics

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Spring Road Trip: Capitol Reef and Grand Canyon Nat'l Parks

With the rise of Spring, the call of Adventure was roaring in my ears.  My wife, the Hobbit, and I journeyed south to the land of colored rock, bright green vegetation in bloom, and a touch of the unknown.  First stop, Capitol Reef National Park, my favorite national park thus far.  The oasis of bright green in the Fruita Historical District was a reprieve and contrast from the desert colors of tan and red.  A quick stop in the Visitor Center to orient ourselves to the unique geological history of the area, as well as a glimpse into what life was like for past settlers, both of the native and the Pioneer variety. 

A storm was rolling in, its dark clouds threatening our encampment and a wonderful dinner.  Foolishly, I had not planned to reserve a camping spot at the park campground, which was crammed full of visitors.  A wonderful park employee who sold us the most amazing and life-changing peach pie, gave us a few alternate locations to pitch our tent, in the literal sense.  The clouds grow thicker as we searched for a place to lay our heads and fill our bellies, and rain followed by snow pounded our adventure vehicle ("Sally" the '93 Saturn SL).  Consulting our atlas, we searched for alternate locations for food and lodging.  We decided to continue on our course, leaving Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, heading south and toward our next destination while investigating other options to set up camp on the way.  A few state parks were situated along our route, however the ones we passed lay upon the shores of Utah's lakes and reservoirs, and as the storm rolled along, the wind amongst the shores was approaching not only uncomfortable but perhaps unbearable levels.  Certainly not levels one typically wants to camp in with a woman who is five months pregnant (and who does not generally enjoy camping, even in good weather).

As we ventured further south to our next destination, we passed in and out of the storm, and into the night.  We faced a few harrowing mountain passes, slick with fresh winter precipitation, and thick with fear in the deep of the night.  However, cool minds and strong courage prevailed and we reached the Southern Utah town of Kanab where we found affordable lodging for the night.  Within the dry, semi-comfort of the cheap motel room, we enjoyed sandwiches, chips, drinks, and the remainder of the life changing peach pie from our first destination while being entertained by the cable television afforded to us by our 49$ a night fee.

As not much occurred during the night except for our light slumber, I will not go into much more detail about our stay in Kanab.  In the morning we departed for our next destination, and the next part of our adventure in the land of Red Rock and desert.

Stay tuned for Part 2: The Grand Canyon.  See all the pictures of my trip by clicking the link below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=100377953742484801752&target=ALBUM&id=5736905900845129089&authkey=Gv1sRgCO2167C44Z7IpgE&feat=email

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Back in Action

As you can tell from the title, I am back!  I apologize for the delay, but things have been crazy here lately at Ranger HQ, with the baby on the way and all sorts of other things.  Stay tuned for my latest adventure!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Down for Maintenance

My apologizes for not posting in over a week but I need to take the blog Down for Maintenance for the next couple of weeks.  We should be up by St. Patties Day.  Keep in touch.  Go have an adventure.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

New News and Shared Article

I recently found out some great news, I am going to be a Father!  Personally I am very excited, and the Hobbit is working on it.  The morning sickness is throwing her off a bit.  But a short while after we found out, I found this article on http://artofmanliness.com (Great site by the way) about how to take your kids camping.  Seems like kids are on the mind of lots of people, or my eyes have just been peeled for these kind of things.  They get full credit, I just want to share it.  Hope you enjoy it. 

http://artofmanliness.com/2011/09/08/camping-with-kids/

Go have an adventure, and take your kids with you.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Every Day Adventure Essentials

Every good adventurer has to have some quality gear, whether for every day adventures in town or in the back country.  While I could go into the nitty gritty details of each brand of the pieces that I will cover, or what I personally feel is the best, I will share my opinions.  But they are simply my opinions and I want each of you to go find your own opinion.  So here we go, every day essentials.

1. Wallet and all included!  Yes, you need to have your wallet.  In my wallet I have proper local ID, a credit/debit card, family pictures, a little bit of cash in small bills, and assorted other cards IE: School ID, library card, Sam's/Costco/BJ's.  Each of these things are increasingly important to have in our modern world.  Even in the back country, a wallet has many uses.  Some are first aid, body ID if you die (Sad but true), old receipts can be used for fire starting.  Figure out what multi-use functions your wallet can provide you for your activities. 

2. A knife.  A good quality pocket or neck knife is a wonderful tool to have that, once you get used to it, you will use every day.  I personally use mine while working on hobby project or at work.  Much of the time you will use it for opening boxes and the like, it is great to have when you need it.  Do your own research on good knifes, for a good resource visit nutnfancy on YouTube, take a look at his playlists, he is subscribed on my YouTube page.  Be prepared to spend a bit of money, but if you by quality, you will only by once.  Unless you lose it, like I have for a few of my knifes.  I use a Spyderco Tenacious

3. A small flashlight in AA or AAA.  Trust me, it is another every day tool that you don't realize how handy it is until you have it with you every day.  I was in a room with no windows when the power went out, and my small quality light lit the room UP!  Just some circumstances that I personally have used my small flashlight in power outages, dark basements, under desks looking for dropped items, unlocking my car, and looking for something in a room without turning on the lights (Someone was sleeping and I didn't want to bother them.)  Like the knifes, see nutnfancy, pay a bit, have it last much longer.  I use a Streamlight Stylus Pro.

4. A handkerchief.  Yay! Something cheep!  Yes, you can use it to wipe your nose, wipe your tears, as a napkin, etc.  Great, cheep, you can get a pack for a few dollars at any megamart or big box.  I use cotton bandanas.

5. Your brain.  You can do SO MUCH when you just use your head.  Using your head, you can see what kind of things you personally need to add to your individual gear.  Be MacGyver, or if that is too old a referance for you, be Micheal Weston.  If you don't get either, use a search engine and put netflix or Hulu to work.

Go have an adventure.


PS: Just got word, and wanted to share.  I ham going to be a father!  A whole new, much anticipated adventure.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Quick Update

Hello Ranger fans, this week, things have been a bit slow at Ranger HQ and the biggest adventure I have had was my batch of projects for Bushclass.  But fret not!  Ranger's Adventures has a Facebook page and a Youtube channel.  They are in their infancy still, but they will be growing.  I am working on a Winter Overnight adventure and will be posting all about it, as well as trying to get a camera with video so I can begin posting things on youtube.  But in the wait, go ahead and take a visit and see some channels I have subscribed to.  Links are below for your internet surfing pleasure, thanks everyone for your support.  We also added the Adventures tab, which provides information to allow you to come on an adventure with me!  This way, we can add more content that you are interested in as viewers.  I look forward to your response.
Ranger


Facebook- http://tinyurl.com/rangerfb
Youtube- http://tinyurl.com/rangeryt